Bears, Stepbrothers, Bigfoot & BDSM

This morning, I spent an ungodly amount of time unsuccessfully searching YouTube for an old cartoon I once watched in grade school. This particular cinematic diamond explains how early humans specialized in different areas of expertise—for example, blacksmiths, ferriers, butcher, bakers, or candlestick makers—because nothing perfectly oversimplifies a complex social science lesson as well as a low-budget cartoon for nine-year-olds.

In the workplace, you might call a specialized human a subject matter expert or an SME. (If you pronounce it “smee,” I’m going to stick you with the lunch check. I might just dine and ditch you out the bathroom window because that is just embarrassing.)

Why am I yammering about specialization?

One word: porn.

“You did not just say that. You know what this will do to your inbox.”

One thing I haven’t talked much about are the fabulous other indie writers I’ve met on Twitter. I credit mostly them and my devoted spambot followers for spreading the word about my books and free Josie Tucker shortstories.

And it’s through retweeting some of these other authors, namely the romance and erotica writers—which I’m lumping into one category I’m calling porn, admittedly for clickbait reasons—that I’ve learned about the multitude of sub-genres that exist, the microcosms of specialization in this particular corner of the literary world.

Bears, Stepbrothers, Bigfoot & BDSM

It seems that multi-hyphenates aren’t just for actors-slash-directors in Hollywood any more.

And this is just the tip of the [insert phallic-metaphor here].

Take a look at this Facebook ad that popped up in my feed. (Incidentally, my feed will never be the same now that I’ve clicked on it.) This series is for fans of: 1.) Gritty romance 2.) Brothers 3.) Blue-collar guys 4.) Billionaires and 5.) Alpha males. I might even be missing one or more sub-genres.

It’s no longer simply the hard or soft option. You can choose werebears, vampires, angels, dragons, beavers (of both kinds), and any number of paranormal main-character heroes. Yes, including Bigfoot—because no topic is taboo. In fact, taboo is its own category, as are step-brother, incestuous, violence, pain, bondage… Are you getting the picture? Because it’s painted in fifty shades of grey.

In case I wasn’t clear in all this dirty, dirty smut: THESE ARE SEARCHABLE CATEGORIES on Amazon and other sites.

Thank God it’s part one. I hate coming right into the middle of a series.

(No, I’m not linking to any of these books, but now you know they exist.)

Why am I even talking about this?

Besides the rippling abs and biceps on the book covers and having a ready-made topic for a dissertation if I ever go back to grad school, I’m interested in this concept of specialization for one very particular reason:

How I categorize my own books when I’m marketing them

Frankly, I had no clue what I was doing when Amazon assigned categories to the first Josie Tucker mystery, The Bride Wore Dead. Here’s a screen grab from when I was running a promo and had an amazingly inflated ranking on this book.

Well, la-di-dah. It just so happens my mom will rank me #1 in Culinary Mysteries every day…until my sister decides to write one.

My point in parading out this graphic, other than to toot my own horn, is to show you that Josie Tucker mysteries are ranked in two vastly different categories: General Humor and Culinary Mystery.

Fifteen years ago, I didn’t even know Culinary Mysteries were a thing. Now I’m banking on this sub-genre to help me get my books in front of more readers—specifically, readers who are searching for Culinary Mysteries. They know what they want to read, and because I’ve categorized my books this way, they’re going to find them. Which is a very good thing.

Thank you, weird, specialized porn writers. I salute you.

Oh, it’s real all right.

So if you’re an author, it’s important not only to know which categories are a good fit for your books, but also find a category that isn’t over-saturated. That is, if you’re in the market for more readers.

Hi EM,
I just read your blog posts for 2016. Wow! Interesting topics. What I like best about your blog is your zany wit… and your willingness to tell it how it is. I just wanted to say that it works for me.

I just cracked the 1,250 follower threshold yesterday (1,100 more than a year ago), but have not had to deal with the carnality issues. But then again, most of my Tweets are about five topics: writing, neuroscience, physics, racing, and cancer research and advocacy. I do have to admit that I have started to get the occasional follower (all women) who have few tweets, but share a likeness for being scantily clad and inviting me to reach out to them. Of course, I don’t follow them back. But to be fair, I spend a couple of minutes (10 at the most) checking out their Twitter home pages before I add them to the Ignore list.

Well, keep up the good work. Both my wife and I enjoyed reading your books and look forward to reading additions to both mystery and fantasy.